Beach Scene during the Finals:Can you find Rod?
Those pretty chicks onthe beach are former classmates.

Beach Scene Close-Up of
Me.

Nice shot of Bruce "Snake"
Gabrielson'sfriend, David Nuuhiwa,on one of the infrequent
lefts in Rincon

This pic readily conveys
one of the main reasonsI enjoy surfing in PR. Mike Purpose in the
pocket.

Mike Doyle on a nice overhead
wave.I spent most of the
semi-finals and finalssurfing 2nd Rock at Maria's
Pointwith the
surf in the 8-12'
range.Mostly rode my
Paipo-60,but also spent some time
ona friend's McTavish V-Bottom.

This issue of Surfer
Magazine has become one of my all time favorites. The World Contest
article is immediately followed by one entitled, "Drag - Surfboard Hydrodynamics,"
by Terry Hendricks (part of a series he wrote that are posted
here). I remembered reading this article some 30 years
ago... but little did I realize that Terry and I would become friends some
three decades hence after exchanging several postings on the alt.surfing
newsgroup. After a couple of years exchanging AS postings and e-mails,
we finally met in person on the 4th of July a few years ago (see pic
of Terry and the gang at La Jolla Shores).

World
Contest Results: (1) Fred Hemmings, (2) Midget Farrelly, (3) Russell
Hughes,
(4) Nat Young, (5) Mike Doyle and (6) Reno Abellira. We grommets
didn't care too much for the California group, nor for Fred Hemmings.
They all seemed so constipated on their long boards and went about town
with an inflated sense
of self-importance. David Nuuwiha and Reno Abellira rocked on
down-the-line
speed and the Aussies were lot's of fun with their progressive approach
to wave riding and friendly dispostion--they also would loan us groms
their
boards! Drew Kampion captured these feelings correctly in his coffee table book, Stoked! [see snippet of Kampion, Drew. Stoked!: A History of Surf Culture. Salt Lake City: G. Smith, 2003. PDF and JPG.]

Other
articles of note in this issue of Surfer Magazine:

Editorial--Contests, Surfers,
and Hair (by Lord James Blears)

The Fantastic Plastic Machine
(by Eric Blum)

Artificial Reefs (by Rick Grigg)

Evolution--The Short Board--II
(by Drew Kampion)

Bad Karma at Huntington Beach
(by Drew Kampion)

Removable
fins advertisements: W.A.V.E. Set (adjustable wave set on the way!);
Fins Unlimited.

There's
even an add for Holmesy Surfboards, maker of the infamous "Sidewinder"
noserider. They offered to sponsor me back around that time but I
preferred a shorter board and was spending more and more time on my paipo
(incidentally made from a Holmesy Sidewinder that snapped in half at Bridges on a
4' day -- no reflection on the workmanship, just the wave!).

Save
on a SURFER subscription... $3.50 (for an entire year!).Check the rinconpr.com site for another interesting article on the 1968 World Contest, including some video footage.The Loss of a Legend
- Just before Christmas a pioneer of Puerto Rican surf culture was lost
and the boricua surf community is still coming to grips with the
passing of Edward "Duke" Michael. Read the Surf Caribe article
and the plans for a memorial paddle out at Tres Palmas on Sunday,
January 18th at 3:00 pm. The article is also reproduced here in HTML and PDFformats (the PDF file includes the Surfrider Chapter announcement).